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Let's talk 2012 MacBook Air - what would you like to see?

You all are mad if you really think Apple is going to put a retina display in the next MBA, but obviously that would be awesome. I just don't see that happening. I'm assuming they will bump up the SSD storage tiers, update the processors, add a HD facetime camera, and perhaps USB 3.0. Mountain Lion will probably be preinstalled as well.
 
Guru53 said:
You all are mad if you really think Apple is going to put a retina display in the next MBA, but obviously that would be awesome. I just don't see that happening. I'm assuming they will bump up the SSD storage tiers, update the processors, add a HD facetime camera, and perhaps USB 3.0. Mountain Lion will probably be preinstalled as well.
Click to expand...

Why not? Can you explain why you think that the Air won't get a retina display? If a $499 iPad gets a 2048x1536 retina IPS display at 9.7", what's the problem of a >$1000 13" MacBook Air getting a 2880x1800 (5.2 MPIX) display? The HD4000 GPU can drive up to 4K displays at (16 MPIX).
 
Mine is simple, I do not like wide bezels, so would like to see a thin frame.

I realise that would increase the screen size to 12"+ which would also be nice with no increase in weight, but that there may not be a standard one made.

However with Apple's buying power and numbers sold, I would have thought that it would not be a problem for them to commission one.

tut
 
A few things

  • Longer battery life
  • An ability to flip the screen all the way flat the other way so I can stand it up and watch movies without the keyboard on the table (using it almost like an ipad)
 
GubbyMan said:
Why not? Can you explain why you think that the Air won't get a retina display? If a $499 iPad gets a 2048x1536 retina IPS display at 9.7", what's the problem of a >$1000 13" MacBook Air getting a 2880x1800 (5.2 MPIX) display? The HD4000 GPU can drive up to 4K displays at (16 MPIX).
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the exact is but it's never a square max supported resolution. I mention that for clarification. The ipad uses some other parts that are much much much less expensive. Expensive parts for the Air include its SSD, the cpus used, and a few other things. The display is probably a much less significant budget item there. Next it could happen. It depends on the R&D of the guys making the display panels and yields. It's quite challenging scaling such high densities upward, and to port to the Air, you'd most likely need to cover both the 11" and 13" models. On price, I would wager that the ipad still has the higher margin of the two. It's manufacturing budget is just set up a bit differently. It's not impossible to do this, but it's just not entirely trivial either. Given the softer cpu update this year (die shrink as opposed to new architecture), I'm sure they'd like to implement such a thing.
 
Let's see:

CPU : You can't keep your dream too high, having a 17watt TDP CPU can only bring you that much, even with Ivy Bridge and all. It would be just "enough" for most people. It would never be a real heavy contender for intensive tasks. It would take years to be able to match what Xeon or desktop i7 can do today on a 17 watt CPU.

Bigger power = badder, end of story.

GPU: Considering Apple start using IGP on Intel CPU, well it's just the same story.

SSD: Not going up anytime soon, maybe until next 2 iterations, it would still only have 256GB at the top. 512GB SSD price is just not justifiable yet for Apple to keep the price point.

Screen: Definitely have to get Retina Display!! Seeing today's new iPad, MBA is just getting more and more humiliated. Yes MBA runs OSX and have more serious apps. But iPad is definitely catching up, it has 264ppi 9.7" display, and it has quad-core GPU, which I think more powerful than a mere Intel HD 3000 found on MBA or base MBP.

RAM: Should've been no less than 4GB as standard. I dont understand why Apple still sell MBA with 2GB RAM. It's just not enough no matter what you do today, simple twittering or video encoding. Plus RAM is cheap, dont care if it's being soldered to the logic board or something. It's still have to be > = 4GB. OSX is 64bit for Pete's sake!! What's with the 2GB RAM? Utter blasphemy!!
 
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As Anand's preview of Ivy Bridge has shown we will see a decent increase in performance for HD 4000 Graphics.

I think the theme this year is -- All Retina Everything.

Retina iPad, Retina Apple Cinema Display (or hopefully a fusion of Apple Cinema & Thunderbolt Displays), Retina MacBook Air, Pro, iPhone 5 (and 4")

Also, hopefully a RAM increase to 8GB's because AFAIK Sandy Bridge ULV processors are limited to 4... correct me if I'm wrong.

Those HiDPI modes are going to be used for something this year. It's only a matter of time since my 5 month old MBA is outdated. :p
 
I'd just like to see it turn up before the end of April when I need one for a trip...otherwise I'll have to get the current one which'll be annoying as by then we won't be too far off the update :rolleyes:
 
I agree! I just want a refresh before the end of April when I will need to buy a new MBA. I know I would be happy with the current model but it is the thought especially when I only buy a new laptop once every 4 years (unless it is a PC and then it is once a year!!). I am looking for any word of when the refresh date will be...
 
Zudeo said:
As Anand's preview of Ivy Bridge has shown we will see a decent increase in performance for HD 4000 Graphics.

I think the theme this year is -- All Retina Everything.

Retina iPad, Retina Apple Cinema Display (or hopefully a fusion of Apple Cinema & Thunderbolt Displays), Retina MacBook Air, Pro, iPhone 5 (and 4")

Also, hopefully a RAM increase to 8GB's because AFAIK Sandy Bridge ULV processors are limited to 4... correct me if I'm wrong.

Those HiDPI modes are going to be used for something this year. It's only a matter of time since my 5 month old MBA is outdated. :p
Click to expand...

Not gonna happen. HD 4000 while a nice bump over 3000 is not going to be anywhere near powerful enough to push "Retina" PPI across a 13" screen. You're talking about a IGP that's at best 30% faster pushing ~4x the pixels. The math doesn't add up.
 
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2IS said:
Not gonna happen. HD 4000 while a nice bump over 3000 is not going to be anywhere near powerful enough to push "Retina" PPI across a 13" screen. You're talking about a IGM that's at best 30% faster pushing ~4x the pixels. The math doesn't add up.
Click to expand...

i'd have to agree..the retina display will probably be in the next major update, which will also bring the 15" air and glass screen across the entire air line
 
2IS said:
Not gonna happen. HD 4000 while a nice bump over 3000 is not going to be anywhere near powerful enough to push "Retina" PPI across a 13" screen. You're talking about a IGP that's at best 30% faster pushing ~4x the pixels. The math doesn't add up.
Click to expand...

Pixels are pixels, screen size doesn't matter. The HD3000 currently supports 2560x1600 (which, ironically, would be a new iPad rivaling 260ppi in an 11.6" screen) and the HD4000 supports 3840x2160 I believe. There could be a few bottlenecks preventing it from occurring in the next release such as cost, production availability, not enough shared memory, etc. but technically the IGP should have no problem.

EDIT - see gpat's post below, Ivy supports 4,096 x 4,096

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/19/intel-ivy-bridge-gpu-to-support-4k-resolutions/
 
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With an rough BOM of the iPad 3, it turns out that the gorgeous 10" IPS Retina is about $70, and the massive 11180 mAH battery is about $30. As they are sold on a $499 iPad, I don't see why couldn't they put them on a $999 MacBook Air. This is ridiculous, a 13" Retina Display could cost $100 at most.

P.S. Ivy Bridge integrated graphics supports up to 4000x4000.
 
gpat said:
With an rough BOM of the iPad 3, it turns out that the gorgeous 10" IPS Retina is about $70, and the massive 11180 mAH battery is about $30. As they are sold on a $499 iPad, I don't see why couldn't they put them on a $999 MacBook Air. This is ridiculous, a 13" Retina Display could cost $100 at most.
Click to expand...
Color me skeptical.

That BOM was magically "calculated" without ever having seen a teardown. Who else makes a 2048x1536 9.7" retina touchscreen display that they can use to base the cost estimate from?

gpat said:
P.S. Ivy Bridge integrated graphics supports up to 4000x4000.
Click to expand...
Good to know.
 
8GB RAM is, what, $30 retail?

8GB minimum on all machines (well, ok, except 4GB for the lowest-end 11")

It would be nice if 16GB were on the top-end 13".
 
kwijbo said:
Pixels are pixels, screen size doesn't matter. The HD3000 currently supports 2560x1600 (which, ironically, would be a new iPad rivaling 260ppi in an 11.6" screen) and the HD4000 supports 3840x2160 I believe. There could be a few bottlenecks preventing it from occurring in the next release such as cost, production availability, not enough shared memory, etc. but technically the IGP should have no problem.

EDIT - see gpat's post below, Ivy supports 4,096 x 4,096

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/19/intel-ivy-bridge-gpu-to-support-4k-resolutions/
Click to expand...

uh, when talking about PPI, scren size matters. I said pixels I didn't say resolution. You said pixels but are describing resolution. There's a difference.

You think 300PPI on a 1" screen is the same as 300PPI on a 10" screen???

I'm also not talking about what it supports, how do you think it's going to perform with that may pixels? Like ****.
 
2IS said:
uh, when talking about PPI, scren size matters. I said pixels I didn't say resolution. You said pixels but are describing resolution. There's a difference.

You think 300PPI on a 1" screen is the same as 300PPI on a 10" screen???

I'm also not talking about what it supports, how do you think it's going to perform with that may pixels? Like ****.
Click to expand...

The GPU doesn't care about PPI - just how many pixels its pushing. Just because they're more dense it doesn't make it any more complex. 1366 x 768 on an 11.6" screen and a 15" screen would require exactly the same GPU power.
 
Again I'm not talking about resolution. PPI matters. 300ppi on a 1" vs 10" screen is not the same. That's 90,000 pixels vs 900,000 pixels. I assure you the GPU cares. 1920x1080 on a 1" or 10" screen is the same, but that's not what I'm talking about. You clearly don't understand what I'm trying to say, I can assure you I'm not wrong.

If the iPhone grows to 4" and maintains the same PPI, That's an added load on the GPU and results in higher resolution. If the iPhone grows to 4" and maintains the same resolution, PPI is reduced and GPU load remains the same.
 
2IS said:
Again I'm not talking about resolution. PPI matters. 300ppi on a 1" vs 10" screen is not the same. That's 90,000 pixels vs 900,000 pixels. I assure you the GPU cares. 1920x1080 on a 1" or 10" screen is the same, but that's not what I'm talking about. You clearly don't understand what I'm trying to say, I can assure you I'm not wrong.

If the iPhone grows to 4" and maintains the same PPI, That's an added load on the GPU and results in higher resolution. If the iPhone grows to 4" and maintains the same resolution, PPI is reduced and GPU load remains the same.
Click to expand...

I think we're misunderstanding each other. In my original post my point of contention was that the MBA currently supports a fairly high resolution - 2560x1600. Its what I currently use, albeit on a much larger display. On this display of course its not "retina" PPI, but if this same resolution could be made in an 11.6" display it would be above the "retina" threshold (which gets more complicated because the threshold involves both PPI and distance). Since it displays the resolution currently, it would display this same resolution on a smaller sized display (at higher PPI) with identical performance to what I get right now. Agreed?
 
Agreed 2560x1600 regardless of physical screen size will have equal GPU load.
 
IMO its going to be a minor increment, something like:

Lowest 11':
  • Ivy Bridge i5 3317U 1.7GHz w/ HD4000
  • 1366x768 pixels
  • 2GB 1600MHz
  • 64GB SSD
  • 2x USB 3.0
  • Thunderbolt v3
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi
  • Improved iSight webcam
  • 6h battery life (instead of 5h)
Highest 11':
  • Same as above but 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD

Lowest 13':
  • Ivy Bridge i5 3427U 1.8GHz w/ HD4000
  • 1440x900 pixels
  • 4GB 1600MHz
  • 128GB SSD
  • 2x USB 3.0
  • Thunderbolt v3
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi
  • Improved iSight webcam
  • 8h battery life (instead of 7h)
Highest 13':
  • Same as above but 256GB SSD

MBPs are going to be upgraded at the same time, and they are going to remove the 13' MBP.
The updates will happen around July 11, 2012.
All macbooks will be shipping with Mountain Lion.

That's it.
 
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